Loosen Up
by CSIcorrespondent
Summary: Hotch is always a little tense. Fluffy one-shot.


_A/N: This is a one-shot. I haven't done one in a long, long time but I discovered the prompts that Kavi and Sienna put out monthly so I figured what the heck? Paget is on Hollywood Game Night tonight, so I'm really looking forward to that. This is for January TV Set #56 Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place - Out with the old. Set season four/five-ish maybe? I don't know if I want Foyet in this...it's too fluffy. Maybe a little OOC? Also I like making them cook together for some reason. No beta so all mistakes are mine. Reviews are always welcome!_

_Disclaimer: I do not own the right to Criminal Minds or its characters. This story is a work of fiction and is not meant to infringe on copyrights held by CBS._

"I really appreciate your help," Emily said gratefully to Hotch as she helped him carry the large IKEA box up into her brownstone.

Hotch nodded. "It was no problem. I'm sure you'd rather have Garcia here to help you."

"Not necessarily." Emily put her end of the box down as she fished her keys out of her jacket pocket. "I'll be honest with you. She's kind of a wimp when it comes to physical labour, and usually when she comes over I end up with a horrible hangover the next morning." She opened her front door roughly and picked up the box again.

They had been spending more time together than usual the last few months. After he had been injured in the explosion in New York, she had made it her priority to coax him out to lunch and coffee whenever she could. They'd even shared a few dinners together, but nothing had resulted from them and she was honestly slightly confused. She knew he needed time though, and she wasn't going to push him. Obviously he didn't have a problem being alone with her, and when they had gone to dinner the subject of work had only been breached briefly. He had never walked her to her door when he dropped her off, so she was convinced that he only saw her as a friend.

"Where are we putting this?"

"Just over here against the wall for a second. This is the old shelving unit that needs to be put in the garbage." Emily helped him move the box to the edge of the room and gestured to a stack of boards in the middle of her living room. "It's just around the corner."

"Okay." Hotch bent down and grabbed the majority of the boards. Emily put the stopper on her door down so that he didn't have to struggle with the handle, and grabbed the rest of the boards.

He saw the garbage bin and flung the boards into it, turning to take Emily's also and she gave him a smile as a thank you. He wiped his hands on his jeans and followed her back inside.

"Well, that's about it. If you need to get home, you're free. Thanks for the help, I really appreciate it," Emily said. He stayed silent with his eyes on the box of her new bookshelf, and she raised an eyebrow at him. "Unless you'd like to stay and help me put this bad boy together?"

His eyes lifted to meet hers. "It's that or case files." Jack was out of town with Haley, and honestly he was sick of spending his nights alone when he couldn't see his son.

"Stay then." She walked to her kitchen and pulled out two glasses, filling both with filtered water from her fridge and handing one to him. "Honestly it's a pain in the ass to put these kinds of things together solo."

"Thanks." He took a sip of the water and set it down to take his coat off, hanging it by the door. He followed her to the living room where she was eyeing up the space the new dresser was supposed to sit in.

"I'm thinking we put it here. There's already marks on the carpet from the old one."

"It'll look nice against the couch." Hotch pointed to her furniture. She nodded in agreement.

"I've always liked the color red." She examined the box and removed the tape from the edges that was holding it together. Carefully, she laid it down and opened it. "Have you done this before?"

Hotch nodded in confirmation. "I have a larger one of these in my apartment but I'm assuming it's the same procedure?"

"They're all pretty similar." Emily took out the pieces, emptying the wooden pegs and the rest of the screws onto her carpet. "Okay, let's do this."

They worked together quickly. Emily had thrown the instructions to the side, deciding to rely on common sense. Finishing the last piece, she watched as Hotch pounded the wooden frame together with his hands and lifted the shelving unit up to rest against the wall.

"Do you want to screw it into the wall?"

"No, I think it'll be fine." Emily pointed to a stack of books and DVDs beside her couch on the ground. "These need to go in. If we put the heavier ones in the bottom, it should balance it."

Hotch nodded and started picking up stacks of books to put in the bottom. Many were psychology textbooks that he assumed were from Emily's post-secondary experiences at Yale and training in the academy. "You kept these?"

"I don't like to throw any books away. I'm kind of a pack rat that way, I suppose. Is it crazy to just like the look of books even if I don't read them?" Emily started filling the top shelves with her DVDs.

"Not at all. I kept mine as well, but they're all in storage." Hotch finished adding the books and watched Emily finish up adding the DVDs. "I should give them to Reid perhaps. He'd probably appreciate them more than me."

"If he hasn't read them already, I'm sure he'd take them off your hands." Emily took a quick survey of the shelf. "Okay, I think that's it. That went a lot faster than I expected, thank you."

"No problem." Hotch checked his watch. It was almost five p.m. and his stomach had started to grumble in the last fifteen minutes. "Are you hungry?"

Emily nodded. "Starving, actually. You want to order something in?"

"It's up to you."

"What do you feel like eating?" She walked to her kitchen and dug in a drawer for some take-out menus. "I can also make us something if you don't feel like getting heartburn tonight."

"What's easiest?"

"Probably takeout, but I really wouldn't mind cooking. Are you okay with that?"

Hotch shrugged. "Sounds fine." He stood at the edge of the kitchen. "Can I help you with anything?"

Emily walked past him to the fridge and surveyed its contents. She eyed the package of bone-in chicken thighs she had picked up at the grocery store earlier in the week. "Crispy chicken and rice sound okay?"

"Sounds delicious."

"Perfect." She started picking out some vegetables from the fridge and handed them to him. "You want to dice these?"

"I think I can handle it." He took a cutting board and knife from her. He rinsed the vegetables quickly in the sink then put them on the cutting board.

Emily checked on Hotch out of the corner of her eye and watched him carefully cutting the vegetables. Averting her eyes, she pulled milk and eggs from the fridge and set them on the counter next to where he was working. She took two small bowls from her cupboard and lined them up, filling one with a combination of two eggs and milk. Grabbing a whisk from her utensil holder, she whisked the mixture together.

Hotch turned to look at her as he moved the carrots he was dicing to the edge of the cutting board. "This looks a lot more complicated than takeout."

"But it'll be a lot of fun. Trust me." Emily winked at him playfully and set the whisk in the sink. "It helps me loosen up."

"That's something I've heard a lot of lately." Emily raised an eyebrow at him questioningly. "Dave's made a habit of trying to set me up with some of his female friends weekly so I'll 'loosen up'. His words, not mine."

"Well if you want my opinion, I think you're fine. A little tense sometimes, but who isn't? Everyone needs to loosen up a little in this job." Hotch nodded in agreement. "I have to say I'm not a fan of blind dates, though. I'm zero for three so far."

"JJ or Garcia?"

"Two from JJ, one from Garcia. They were nice guys, but there was no chemistry. That, and Guy Number Two tried to cop a feel when he walked me to my car. Needless to say JJ got an earful the next morning."

Hotch frowned at the story and looked up at her. Her face was expressionless as she turned to take some cornmeal and soup crackers out of her cupboard. "I think the idea of being a gentleman has been lost somewhere in the twenty-first century." He hated the idea of another man touching her like that without her approval.

"Not in every man." She started took out a food processor and poured the crackers in with the cornmeal and added a few spoonfuls of flour before pulsing the mixture together. "Then again, if Rossi tries to loosen them all up there may be no hope for the rest of the female race."

He stared at her as she poured the mixture in the food processor into the other bowl. His hearing had been improving since the explosion and was almost back to 100%, so he was sure he had heard her correctly. "I'll be sure to mention that to him the next time he tries to set me up."

Emily bent down and pulled out a pan from under the stove. She gestured to it. "You can put those in here if you need to make some room."

Hotch lifted the cutting board over to the pan carefully and dumped the chopped vegetables into it, brushing against her as she moved past him. He set the board back on the counter and watched Emily douse each chicken thigh in the egg wash and then the breading and place them in a glass baking pan. "Where did you learn to do this?"

"My grandmother. She used to make it every time we managed to make it over to visit." She finished the last chicken thigh and washed her hands in the sink. She slid the pan into the oven. "It'll be about forty minutes so we have a little time to kill."

An image of her on the kitchen counter flashed into Hotch's mind, and he blinked rapidly. Where the hell did that come from? He caught himself and looked at her, nodding.

Emily caught a flash of panic in his face and frowned. He masked it quickly, so she decided to drop it. "I can put on the news?"

Hotch cleared his throat. "Sounds good."

She grabbed her remote and flicked the TV on. She took a seat on one of the bar stools, changing the channel to CNN. She turned to him and saw him standing motionless in the kitchen. "Hotch, are you alright?"

"I'm fine." Emily caught the hesitation in his response.

"You can sit down." She gestured to the seat next to her.

He walked around the island and pulled the bar stool out to sit on it. He watched her brush her hair behind her ears and his mouth went dry. Her shirt was sliding lower on her shoulder and he had the sudden urge to touch the bare skin. But he knew that definitely was not an option.

Emily scoffed at one of the reporters. She turned her head to complain to Hotch and caught him staring at her shoulder. His eyes flicked up to hers immediately. "Sorry, what?"

She was definitely okay with this new development. "It was nothing." She licked her lips and was satisfied when his eyes dropped to her lips briefly. It was all the confirmation she needed that he wasn't satisfied with the friend zone either. She turned back towards the TV screen, tension hanging in the air.

They sat in silence, the only sound coming from the television sound system. Hotch was careful to keep his eyes on the screen although everything was going over his head. Emily would subconsciously reach over to scratch her shoulder and her shirt would slide lower and lower across her shoulder. For a moment he thought she was doing it on purpose, but there was no way she would be. Not for him.

Commercials started to role and Emily switched off the TV. She spun her legs around so that she was facing him and his eyes met hers immediately. There was only a foot or less of room between them now. She let her gaze linger before she checked her watch. "We still have another twenty minutes." Her eyes lifted back to meet his.

"You want me to start cooking the vegetables?"

"Sure. I should start the rice." She gave him a smile and pushed off of her seat, brushing against him slightly as she stood on her feet.

Hotch watched her pull a pot out and fill it with rice and water and put it on the stove on simmer. She leaned back against the counter, raising an eyebrow at him. He mentally shook himself and got up from his seat, joining her at the stove. He watched her turn on the burner where the pan with the vegetables was sitting and add coconut oil to it. "That's a new one."

"I like it. Supposed to be better for you than olive oil when you heat it up, or something like that." Emily took a plastic spatula and handed it to him. "Think you can handle it?"

"Should be able to." He mixed the vegetables around the pan as they cooked. He snuck a glance to Emily who was standing close to him, watching the rice boil and turning the heat down to simmer.

"You know," Emily started, biting her lip. He was obviously nervous about being the one to initiate contact, so she was more than happy to take the reins. "You don't have to just look."

He turned to her questioningly, setting down the spatula. "Am I doing something wrong?"

"I'm not talking about the food." Oh.

Emily looked at him, gauging his reaction. "It would be okay with me. If you didn't just look, I mean." Oh god, she was starting to ramble. "If that's what you want, that is."

He froze. She was giving him permission to touch her. Emily Prentiss was coming onto him, Aaron Hotchner. Broken, divorced, single father Aaron Hotchner. And deep down, he knew that he didn't want to ignore it.

She was starting to get nervous. He wasn't moving, just staring at her with a blank look on his face. Maybe she had read things completely wrong? God she was such an idiot! She looked down and moved to open her mouth and apologize when she felt a hand on her arm. She looked back up to him, a question in her eyes.

"I'm not good at this, Emily." His hand travelled up her arm and stopped at her shoulder, caressing the bare skin there.

She moved closer to him. "You're doing an excellent job so far."

His hand continued up at her encouragement and cupped her cheek, caressing it with his thumb. She nuzzled his palm, her eyes shooting down to his lips and then back up to his eyes. She moved closer until she was pressed up against him and his other hand came up to hold her face in his hands. "I think I can help you. With Dave's plan, I mean."

"Is that so?" He dropped a kiss on her cheek and she shivered at the contact.

"You helped me build a bookshelf. The least I can do is to help you loosen up."

Hotch smirked into her ear. "Well that's a convincing argument."

"Then what are you waiting for?" Her arms moved from his waist and wrapped around his neck, urging him forward. "A gentleman never keeps a lady waiting."

"You're right, I'm forgetting my manners." He left a line of kisses along her cheek and she moaned when he finally reached her lips.

She pulled him closer, deepening the kiss as much as possible. Hotch pushed her against the counter and she released him briefly to hop up on the surface before drawing him back to her. The feeling of déjà vu came to him from his thoughts earlier in the evening, but they were quickly forgotten as he gave in to the moment.

Emily had her right leg fully wrapped around him when the oven timer beeped obnoxiously, interrupting the moment. He groaned and broke away from her, removing his hands from her back where they had crept under her shirt. His eyes met hers and he gave her one last short kiss before releasing her.

She pouted at him, then reached over to silence the oven timer. "Umm..."

"I'm sorry, I got a little carried away."

"I'm not complaining. I wasn't exactly an unwilling participant." She looked at the vegetables. Luckily they had only been on low heat, otherwise there was no doubt they would have been burnt by now. Although, she was surprised they hadn't set the entire kitchen on fire with how things had been progressing until they had been interrupted.

"Emily." He said her name quietly, turning her face back to him. She met his eyes questioningly. "I don't know if I can commit to something right now. I'm not good at this."

"You said that before." She kissed him briefly before pulling back. "I think you're underestimating yourself."

"We can't just have fun, Emily. You know that." He sighed against her forehead. They had crossed the line, and he didn't think there was any way that either of them could forget that. "The politics in this job can get dangerous."

"I don't just want to have fun Aaron. I know what this is, and it's not just a silly fling." She looked into his eyes. "I couldn't stand for it to just be a fling. And frankly, I couldn't care less about politics, but we don't have to make it public knowledge."

He stood there, unmoving, processing the information in his head slowly. Emily started chewing her bottom lip nervously, dropping her eyes. Finally, he let a sigh go and kissed her forehead. "Okay."

"Okay?" Emily looked up at him.

"Okay." Hotch smiled at her. "This is something I don't want to screw up. I can't screw it up."

"You won't screw it up." She returned his smile and slid off the counter, intentionally sliding against him.

He groaned when she stepped away from him and opened the oven, checking the chicken. Satisfied that it was finished, she turned the oven off. She checked the rice and took the lid off, stirring it. She poured it into the vegetables and mixed everything up and turned the stove off. She felt Hotch come up behind her and slide her hair off of her shoulders, and she pushed him back and started to walk away from him.

Hotch raised an eyebrow as she got further away from him. His eyes widened as she undid her belt and threw it onto the ground in the hallway. Her shirt smacked him in the face and he removed it to find her grinning at him.

"We can have a little fun, can't we?" She winked at him and walked into her bedroom.

For once in his life over the last few years, he didn't think twice.

CMCMCMCMCMCMCMCMCMCMCMCMCMCMCMCMCMCMCMCMCMCMCMCMCMCMCMCMCMCM

David Rossi whistled as he walked into his office, throwing his briefcase onto his desk. He glanced up as Hotch poked his head in. "Case?"

"Just came in. Conference room in five."

"Perfect." Rossi took off his coat and turned to catch his colleague's eye as he left. "You never told me how it went with Roxanne last month. Any luck?"

Something flashed on Hotch's face, but it disappeared instantly. "She was nice, but I don't know if it'll work out."

"That's too bad. Why not? Roxie's a catch."

"I'm sure she is, but she told me she can't cook." Hotch shrugged. "I'm useless in the kitchen so it would never work out."

Rossi's eyebrows nearly shot off of his face. "Are you kidding me?"

"Conference room in five." Hotch disappeared from the doorway and left his friend sitting there, dumbfounded.

Rossi collected his folder and tablet and got up from his desk, shaking his head. He saw Emily walk up the stairs and gave her a smile. "How was your weekend?"

"It was fine. Put together a new bookshelf." She smiled at Rossi and he could swear that her eyes had a sparkle to them. "Nothing like pounding a few boards into place to make you feel a whole lot better."

"You kids these days. You really let loose." Hotch started coughing, and Emily handed him a bottle of water from the fridge. Rossi raised an eyebrow at him, but he managed to clear his throat.

"If everyone's here, let's get started." Hotch slid into a chair next to Emily and started the meeting.

As they left to grab their belongings for the next case, Rossi couldn't help but pull Hotch aside as they walked to the jet. "You alright? You seem even more uptight than usual."

"I'm fine."

"You really should give Roxie a second chance. She could help loosen you up real good." He heard Derek snort in front of them.

"I'm not sure this is the time for this conversation." Hotch gave Rossi a stern look.

"Alright, but you're not getting away from this." Rossi watched Hotch walk faster and catch up to Reid and Emily.

"Should we add love doctor to your resume?" JJ laughed as she saw the look on Rossi's face as Hotch abandoned him.

"If I could find a cure for stubbornness I'd be a millionaire." Rossi just shook his head.

"I hear you."

Emily Prentiss just smirked all the way to the jet.


End file.
